AMD Plans to Discontinue Dual-Chip Radeon HD 7990 Graphics Card

Advanced Micro Devices intends to discontinue dual-chip Radeon HD 7990 graphics card later this quarter in a bid to free market space for next-generation offerings. Keeping in mind that level of performance offered by the HD 7990 is similar to product that have been available on the market since May, 2012, it is logical for AMD to get rid of it before launching its all-new graphics products.

While proprietary dual-chip graphics cards based on AMD Radeon HD 7970 GPUs have been available for about a year now, the reference dual-GPU solution was only revealed in April, 2013. As it appears, the life of the Radeon HD 7990 will be rather short since it should become unavailable by Fall.

AMD Radeon HD 7990 emerged about a year after its direct rival, dual-chip GeForce GTX 690, as well as two months after Nvidia Corp. unleashed its single-chip flagship GeForce GTX Titan. Both competing graphics card cost around $1000 and have been available for quite a while to satisfy demands of performance enthusiasts. That said, the market success of the Radeon HD 7990 was supposed to be limited.

With all-new Radeon HD graphics cards based on code-named Curacao graphics chips due in October or November, it makes no sense for AMD to keep Radeon HD 7990 in its lineup. Those looking for extreme performance will be able to get one or two latest graphics boards based on AMD GPUs.